Though his exact arrival is unknown, Nicolas Perrot
(1644-1718) is believed to have come to Canada after the
reestablishment of the French fur trade in 1665. Perrot lived
among various Indian tribes for thirty-five years, primarily in
the area of present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin. As a French government agent
beginning in 1683 and commandant for Green Bay in 1685, Perrot
built numerous posts on the upper Mississippi River, claiming
possession of the region and the Sioux country for France, and
serving as an effective mediator in trade negotiations between
the French and Indians.

Charles Claude La Potherie (1668-1738) was a West Indian
Creole with connections to the French Court. Potherie arrived in
Canada in1696 and participated in the great treaty of 1701 at
Montreal that made peace among the warring Iroquois and the
Algonquian tribes. Potherie met Perrot during those treaty
negotiations and the two collaborated on the text presented
here. Potherie used Perrot’s original journals for this text.
Historians believe that the second and third volumes of
LaPothene’s history are almost wholly reproductions of the
original journals. In them, Perrot recounts his first years in
Wisconsin with detailed descriptions of the various Indian
tribes and the changes suffered by these peoples upon white
incursion. Perrot spent his last years writing his memoirs in
Becancour, where he died in 1718.

Perrot’s Expeditions, 1665-1670

After resecuring their claims in Canada, French officials
sought to establish safe and profitable trade routes for
travelers in the upper Mississippi through the establishment of
trade outposts. This extract discusses the status of relations
among the Wisconsin tribes and the state of war that Perrot
moderated as the commandant at Green Bay. His encounters with
the Menominee, Potawotamie, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), and Mascoutin
are discussed. Perrot used trade goods and firearms to
demonstrate the superiority of the French over the Indians.
Traveling through Wisconsin and the west during 1665-1671, his
efforts culminated in the Pageant of 1671 at Sault Ste. Marie
that established trade agreements among the tribes and the
French. Once installed in Green Bay, Perrot traveled among the
different tribes living in Wisconsin, visiting the Mascoutin at
Berlin on the Fox River and sharing a pipe and a feast with
them. Perrot also visited the island of Michilimackinak and met
with the Potawotamies on the eve of an attack by the Iroquois.

Document Note

Perrot’s original journals were lost, though they were used
extensively by early Canadian historians. Charles La Potherie
received the journals from Perrot at the peace treaty of 1701
between France, England, and the Iroquois. La Potherie used the
journals to write his history of New France, which was first
published in four volumes in Paris in 1716, under the title
Histoire de l’Amerique Septentrionale. The popularity of the
volumes led to subsequent editions in 1722 and 1753.